Can the PM use "constitutional lawyers" to delay the federal election?

The Australian Electoral Commision has now responded to the claim.

A tweet posted by user 'SuDharmapala' claims that Prime Minister Scott Morrison will "(pull) in the constitutional lawyers" in an attempt to delay the 2022 Federal Election.

"Make no mistake - Morrison will be pulling in the constitutional lawyers to find out how much he can use the pandemic to delay elections."

"That will be his game plan."

At time of publication, the tweet has well over 1.3K likes & several hundred retweets.

But could the PM really use constitution lawyers to delay an election?

No.

Despite reports of an early election in late 2021, it's all but certain that Australians will head to the polls in March or May next year.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) wrote in reply that "the next election must occur before 21 May 2022," adding that "we would suggest you tag or DM us to ask about things like this in future rather than posting misleading speculation."

ABC Election Analyst Antony Green also backed up that statement, saying there is no constitution room to delay the election.

"The House of Representatives WILL expire on 1 July 2022 and writs for an election MUST be issued within 10 days."

The user who posted the original tweet has now posted private messages from the AEC, while not deleting the tweet.

RATING: FALSE

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